


The Dead Make Better Company Than The Living Sometimes

by Scarlet_Nin



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, BAMF Klaus Hargreeves, Blood and Injury, Gen, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Siblings Seem To Think The Worst Of Him, Misunderstandings, Number Five Needs To Chill, Protective Ben Hargreeves, This Time He Sets Them Straight, mentions of the mausoleum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24358972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlet_Nin/pseuds/Scarlet_Nin
Summary: “This is a bad idea.”“You’re such a worrywart, Benny!” Klaus squints at him, shifting on his feet at the entrance of a graveyard. He can hear the faint howls of screams in his ears, the coldness seeping into his bones, freezing him into place. “It’s gonna be fine. As easy as a piece of cake. Hey, you know what? We should go out and eat cake after this. You love cake.”Ben shakes his head. “Look at yourself! You don’t even want to do this, so let’s leave.”Klaus glances down at him, sexy boots with heels and his favorite fur trimmed jacket. “I look fabulous. Don’t know what you mean.”“You’ve been standing here for the past hour, trembling and trying to talk yourself up to take a single step further and yet you’re still standing here. Let’s go home, Klaus.”Yeah, no. Not happening. He's here to prove something. Leaving now would be a waste of time. It would prove Daddy dearest right and Klaus hates that thought more than what he's about to do. If it all goes well, Five and the others would stop being so stressed and he'd earn himself some browney points in family bounding. Easy peasy.Or not. Because ghosts in a graveyard are like rabid dogs fighting over a juicy steak.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Everyone
Comments: 55
Kudos: 1062





	The Dead Make Better Company Than The Living Sometimes

_“This is a bad idea.”_

“You’re such a worrywart, Benny!” Klaus squints at him, shifting on his feet at the entrance of a graveyard. He can hear the faint howls of screams in his ears, the coldness seeping into his bones and freezing him into place. “It’s gonna be fine. As easy as a piece of cake. Hey, you know what? We should go out and eat cake after this. You love cake.”

Ben shakes his head. _“Look at yourself! You don’t even want to do this, so let’s leave.”_

Klaus glances down at him, sexy boots with heels and his favorite fur trimmed jacket. “I look fabulous. Don’t know what you mean.”

_“You’ve been standing here for the past hour, trembling and trying to talk yourself up to take a single step further and yet you’re still standing here. Let’s go home, Klaus.”_

If Ben were corporal, he’d be dragging him away by the wrist like a big brother leading their baby sibling away from the playground. But Ben isn’t because Klaus’s nerves are so high strung, they’ll snap at the barest pressure like the violin strings of Vanya’s favorite instrument.

“Do I hear you bitching about giving myself a quick rest after walking all over the city trying to find this rundown playground of ghosties? Excuse you, but not everybody is like Five. We can’t all just snap our fingers and appear on the other side of the country.”

_“You’ve been gone for hours. You didn’t tell them when you will be back or that you were going out at all.”_ Ben lists off like he’s telling him about the ingredients of a grocery list. _“You don’t think they’ll be angry? Or misunderstand the situation?”_

Klaus stops biting his lips to turn to stare at Ben with wide eyes.

“C’mon they know I’ve been sober for months now.” He insists, holding the folder with the empty papers close to his chest like a shield, pen in his pocket ready to be drawn like a sword. “Have a little faith in our favorite bunch of misfits. They know I’m giving this my best shot.”

Ben purses his lips, turning his head away. _“Fine. Do what you want.”_

“I plan to but not without my personal Number One at my side.” Klaus winks at the offended look Ben throws at him, shaking his head and taken a step forward.

“You’re like my super annoying ghost sidekick. The hero can’t do anything right without them, so let’s go and find the woman who’s turning our little Five into more of a grandpa than usual. I think I saw a few grey hair on the old man this morning.”

_“You’re giving me grey hair, here. Yet, you don’t give a fuck.”_

“Ben, darling, ghosts don’t get grey hair.” Klaus slowly walks into the yard, trying hard not to flinch at the wailing getting louder. A man with a noose hanging around his neck like a flashy piece of jewelry narrows his eyes as they pass his tombstone. “Not that you wouldn’t pull it off.”

Ben eyes some of the ghosts coming nearer. A kid with a missing arm, crying for their mother. A woman crawling towards them, leaving behind a glistering wet trail of blood from her entrails being dragged along the ground, legs and lower body missing. A bald man with so many knife wounds on his body he can’t tell if the clothes he wore before he died were red or white.

_“Maybe you should stop talking to me, before they notice you can hear them.”_

“Nice idea, but that won’t work.” Klaus tightens his grip on the folder, keeping his eyes firmly on reading the names on the tombstones they pass. “Remember what we’re here for? They’ll know when I’m trying to talk to her.”

Ben looks stressed enough for grey hair, he thinks. _“Then just don’t. There’s no guarantee she’ll be here at all or that you can make her show up. Or that she’ll talk. Hell, Five didn’t ask you to do this and you didn’t even offer!”_

“He didn’t ask because he thinks I’m not able to help.” Klaus snaps, glowering at Ben. “And I didn’t offer because what if he’s right? If I told him I’d do it and came back empty handed? Just another time Klaus being Klaus. A disappointment. If you don’t want to help me then just go away.”

He wants nothing more than to turn on his heels and run away like the devil is chasing him. The wailing and screams only get louder the more minutes pass and from the throbbing inside his skull, a headache is beginning to form. His lungs cannot get the air they need and the smell of rotten flesh is making him want to throw up all over his feet.

But he recalls Five handwriting all over the wall. His lack of sleep and intake of coffee rising to dangerous levels for his body. Bloodshot eyes and shorter temper. Sharper tongue too and he’s been close to making Vanya cry during the family meeting because his mind running on stress is vicious.

_“You’re all so useless!”_

Klaus doesn’t want to be useless. Never wanted to be even with his power being what it was. So, here he finds himself, treading cautiously through a graveyard with the sun beginning to disappear on the horizon, like he’s twelve again, having woken from a nightmare and trying not to wake his Father while sneaking through the hallway to Ben’s room for comfort.

He’s got the name of the lady at least. Five had been on an all high rant, running his mouth and spilling out the information to collect his thoughts and clear his head rather than to inform them of anything important.

Lily Johnson. Cute name if it weren’t for the fact, she’s killed at least half as much people as Five apparently had and was aware of the Commission. Some sort of hitman—woman, whatever. Age 47. Died a traitor’s death or something. Got kicked in the jaw by the back of her head after she’s been forced to bite down on stairs. Multiple knife wounds all over her skin and then thrown into a swimming pool, left to drown. That must have stung like a bitch.

The information she had on the Commission made her a target alone before she’d gone rouge or something. Five hadn’t made much sense. But information was power and even the Commission had no idea how much she knew and about what exactly. That was the reason they had silenced her in the first place. Five was convinced it had something to do with a threat they needed to prepare for, which was why he’d been having a fit about her being killed off before he had the chance to meet up with her on equal ground. The last resort would be selling the information to the Commission in price for being left alone.

No big deal. Klaus could always take the fall and come back after all.

_“Fuck off. I’m not leaving, so shut your trap and focus on calming down.”_

“Yes, dear.”

Taking in a deep breath, he counts to four, giggling at the number, before letting it out slowly. God, he needs a drink but they don’t taste half as good with Ben’s betrayed face staring at him. Not to mention he can’t summon dead spirits without being clean.

They spent another half an hour walking around until the name catches his eye on a tombstone.

_Well, here goes nothing._

Clearing his throat, he starts calling out her name.

Nothing happens. Safe for the slow forming crowd of ghosts creeping up on him.

“Lily! Miss Lily Johnson is needed at row eight!” He cups one hand around his mouth, watching Ben shuffle closer to him as the ghosts close in. “Come now, I haven’t got all night! I just wanna talk!”

A woman with half her face burnt off lunges at him, screaming at the tops of her lungs. He stops himself from flinching away at the sight of her.

“Yeah, not you. No offense.”

Another man with a missing eye looms over him, blood spilling past his lips. Sweat breaks out on Klaus’s skin and he squeezes his eyes shut.

“Lily Johnson.” He repeats the name like he can will her into existence. He shivers in the gust of icy wind, pushing out his chin to keep his head held high. “I need information for Five, so this is your last chance to bitch about whoever gutted you to end up here and—would you mind shutting the fuck up already?”

He glares at the crowd of dead bodies hissing at him, eyes wild and flashing murder across their faces. He curls into himself on instinct, gasping for the fresh air. He’s not in the goddamn Mausoleum but it feels like it, with the suffocating crowd closing in.

_“Oh, but I thought you wanted to talk?”_

The purr sounds like static noise making the hair on the back of his neck stand up straight. Forcing himself to look past the crowd of corpses filling his vision he sees a woman with red hair sitting on the tombstone in a wet suit.

Ben is instantly at his side. _“Careful. She’s dangerous.”_

“If she’s buddies with Five, I’m not going to think she’s made out of rainbows and kittens.” Klaus says with a strain to his voice, walking through the bodies in front of him with a shudder to stand a foot away from her. Her eyes follow his movements, her jaw a night sky of purple and black.

_“You woke me up again.”_

“Yeah,” He nods, opening the folder in his hands and getting out the pen to write about whatever she’ll give him. He’s not picky save for the rain starting to fall. He forgot to bring an umbrella, so he hopes whatever he writes down will be readable. “For a nice little gossip session. You can have your beauty rest after that.”

Her bloodshot eyes narrow at him and he forgets how to breath.

_“They’ll kill you just like they killed me.”_ She whispers across the clearing, easily carrying through the yelling loudness of the other ghosts. _“Foolish boy.”_

“It’s not gonna stick.”

She perks up at that, eyes growing darker. _“What?”_

Klaus got the feeling he said something wrong, but this was what he was hoping for. Twisting his lips into a smile, he leans closer, holding up the pen in his hand.

“I’ll share my secrets,” He points at himself with the pen. “If you’ll spill yours!” He points at her.

An eerie smirk creeps onto her face, her blue lips showing off her bloody teeth.

_“A deal is a deal.”_ She promises, a shiver running down his spine at her raspy voice. _“What do you need to know?”_

Ben’s protest about leaving go unheard in the mass of voices when his focus is caught on her.

* * *

Fucking ghosts. Fuck Daddy dearest too for giving him trauma of the dead.

The ghosts are closing in and he’s losing it. Losing it like a child with tears in his eyes and a lack of air in his lungs as he runs as far as his legs can carry him. The folder in his arms is no longer empty and worthless. With its pages full of his shaky handwriting filling it with the secrets of the dead, it’s priceless in value and far too heavy to carry for his arms.

Lily Johnson was a bitch. God, he hopes she’ll have tea with the devil if that is even a real thing to experience anyway. She certainly deserves rotting in eternal flames for toying with him like this.

Giving up information she has no need for anymore. Death must have dissolved her sanity like acid because she clung to him with an unhinged smile of hysteria. Words coated in honey as she talked on and on about the Commission and her missions and her victims, some of them joining in their little session of a heart to heart.

She’s seen him pale as minutes turned to hours, has watched as his shaking grew worse and worse, his skin drenched in cold sweat. His mental walls breaking down with every sharp wail in his ears, the ghosts reaching for him with their sharp nails and heated eyes, calling his name, pleading and furious and so full of anger. She relished as the night came, making him feel smaller at its arrival, the darkness wearing him down as the walls of the mausoleum crept back up.

Convincing him with every little tale that leaving right now would be a mistake. He’d promised to tell her what his words had meant after all. And Five would appreciate any information from her, no matter how small it may seem, so Klaus had stayed, driven by the need to be useful. When his pen was empty of ink, he’d closed the folder and backed away a few steps.

_“It’s not going to stick because I can’t stay dead.”_

The yard for the first time since he can remember went silence. So blissfully silent. Until they lunged for him with a hatred fueled in their veins so startling for him, so clear in their eyes he’d been paralyzed as they tugged at his clothes.

_“I want to live! Why you, why you—”_

_“Die, die, die!”_

_“Unfair!”_ Another had snarled into his face as one of the ghosts sunk their teeth into his arms, jostling him back into movement. Ben had screamed, high and loud and so terrified it got his legs underneath him moving as The Horror slammed a path free for him to walk.

Ben shouldn’t sound so afraid. Ever. Ben was dead. He had no right to be terrified. Klaus wouldn’t let him.

Klaus ran until his legs ached and he collapsed in some alleyway, gasping for breath he couldn’t get enough of. Lungs burning as he rocked back and forth, shaking worse than when he’d gone cold turkey.

“Real, they’re real.” He whimpers, hands fisted in his hair. “I made them real. They’re real.”

Ben’s voice sounds far away, underwater to his ears. _“They’re not anymore. Klaus, breath, they’re not here anymore.”_

“Liar!” His throat hurts from screaming as he’d run, never far enough to escape. “They’re always here.”

Always lurking in his line of sight, breathing on the back of his neck. Screaming and pleading and cursing his name for never being good enough. For not helping them and making them angry.

_“I’m here too and I won’t let them get to you. I promise.”_

Tears are spilling over his cheeks, hot on his freezing skin. Staying silent, he curls into himself, sobbing into his knees as Ben’s voice washes over him.

_“I’m here. You’re not alone. They can’t touch you anymore, I won’t let them touch you. I’ll rip them into so many pieces they won’t be able to pierce themselves back together.”_

Breath in. Hold for four seconds. Breath out.

_“You’re doing so good, Klaus. You’re safe with me.”_

In and out. In. Out.

_“I’ll protect you; you hear me? I can’t give you any hugs right now but I swear if I could I’d break so many of your ribs with my strength, Luther would be jealous. You’re not alone, you’re loved. I’ll stay here with you for the rest of eternity. Death cannot part us.”_

“You sap…” Klaus chokes on a laugh, raising his head to see a blurry Ben hovering in front of his knees. “You’re just a big softie, aren’t you?”

_“I learned from the best.”_ Ben’s face fills with relief and he tries to touch him, lay a hand on his head but it goes right through and his face falls a little. _“Okay, you’ll have to cash in on that hug later. Let’s get you up and back to the house.”_

“Just…just a moment. My legs don’t seem to work right now.”

_“That’s fine. We have time.”_ Ben soothes with a patient calm he’s perfected over dealing with Klaus over the years.

They sit there in silence for another half an hour until Klaus’s legs uncurl. Picking himself up and the folder, he stuffs it inside his coat, wincing when his arm starts to throb. He rolls back his sleeve, grimacing at the gory mess before rolling it back down to cover it. His sleeve soaks through with blood but he ignores it as he walks down the streets, swaying from side to side.

The relief he feels upon seeing the house is overwhelming. He’s never felt much aside from distaste and resentment at the sight of it which he blames of Reginald. If Daddy Dearest didn’t spend so much time of his childhood in turning it into a torture chamber Klaus would have returned for a visit sooner than at his funeral.

But what ifs never got him anywhere, so he chooses not to dwell on them.

Klaus hurries to the front door, nearly tripping over his feet.

If he’d known what would greet him, he’d turned straight around and left.

* * *

“Where were you?”

His siblings are sitting in the living room. All five of them turning to stare at him when he rushes in through the door.

“Out.” Klaus pants, leaning against the wall for support because running the last few meter might have not been the best idea.

But he’s back now, hours late but with information. He was useful, could make Five smile again and perhaps look a little less murderous now. It makes the horror trip to the graveyard worth the mental breakdown he’s had.

Diego’s face looks ashen. “Out where, Klaus?”

He sounds worried, a touch too cold with disappointment at his arrival for Klaus to cling to the warmth blooming in his chest at revealing where he’s been. His eyes stray from Diego to the others.

Luther’s standing at the corner of the room, hands balled into fists, eyes all but screaming disgust and helplessness. Allison sits on the couch, eyes red-rimmed like Vanya’s but her lips are pulled into a mask of disapproval, hand clinging to Vanya’s whose face holds a sad little frown of distress and shame. Five glares at him from his seat on the couch, eyes wild and furious even if his face is blank and his cup of coffee lays in shards at the other side of the room. Broken.

_Oh._

No matter how high up he would have been with the drugs, Klaus doesn’t think his heart could have fallen farther when reality comes crashing down on him. His legs shake as he pushes himself off the wall and blinks to fight the tears back.

_They wouldn’t. They know I didn’t—Ben couldn’t have been right._

Ben couldn’t have been right in them having not one ounce of the faith he’s got in them.

But Luther shatters through his train of thoughts, of denial, with a cruel scoff and a shake of the head, looking so much like Reginald for a split second, Klaus reels back into childhood memories.

“Isn’t it obvious? Just look at him.”

Klaus flinches, a bit confused until he remembers he must look like death warmed over. Bloodshot eyes from crying, voice raspy from screaming it raw in his fright. Clothes disheveled from hands pulling at them, trying to force him to stay and to get to his skin. Hair unruly to the point of messy from his own tugging and sweaty and pale from the scare of nearly being mauled by a pit of angry spirits.

“I didn’t—” He stammers, trying to explain past the sinking block of ice in his chest. His eyes stray to Ben for help, who looks furious beyond belief at his siblings.

“Didn’t what?” Five stands up, lips pulled into a tight, bloodless line. “Didn’t mean to leave for hours on end to get another fix? To leave us alone with this mess while you were out doing God knows what?”

_“You were always my greatest disappointment, Number Four.”_

“I didn’t go out to get high!” Pulse ringing in his ears he feels like his heart is about to burst out of his chest. “What the fuck? Why would I—I’ve been clean! For months.”

He desperately looks for a flicker of faith, of agreement but Vanya turns her head away and Allison shakes hers.

Five’s hand slams down on the table, making him jump.

“Relapses always happen.” Five states it like a fact, lips curling into a scowl so similar to Reginald’s Klaus feels like he’s a child again, standing underneath his tall shadow.

“If you lie, at least make it believable. There’s no excuse you could give us that would be plausible for leaving in the morning without saying a word that’s not going to make us furious. Even if you didn’t get out to get high, what reason would you have to make us worry for you during such a crucial time? What could you spend so many hours on without coming back?”

Five always had the ability, the talent for making him feel stupid. For every little thing. From spilling milk over the table after a night in the mausoleum to accidently tripping over his feet after a ghost startled him by screaming in his ear.

Klaus never expected him to make him feel stupid for believing in him.

But he feels like the biggest idiot now, for thinking anything would be different. For wanting to help this little prick of a self-righteous brother out when he’s got nothing but eye rolls and nasty comments most of his life from his siblings.

Stupid for wanting to help out, for wanting to be better.

His vision goes hot red and this is what Vanya must have felt like during her breakdown. Not the disappointment in himself he always feels but the burning raw anger bubbling to the surface at their unwillingness to listen and their readiness to jump onto thinking the worst of him.

Most of all, he’s sick. Of them and himself. Of his stupidity in believing in the good times trying to overlook at the bad ones that keep piling up.

Ben didn’t treat him like this. Would never speak to him like this, look at him like he was a lost cause from the very start. Make him feel like he could never be better than the lowest of the low.

The folder lands heavy on the table despite its normal looking size. Klaus hadn’t felt himself move. They fall deathly silent at the sight of it.

“Terribly sorry it took so long,” Klaus says with fake cheer, voice losing any of its warmth and leaving in its place a flatness so void of sweetness it turns bitter.

“But between trying to muster up the courage to investigate without the drugs to mute the noise because that would be counterproductive, right? To mute the deafening wails and attempt to talk to the poor lady you wanted information from. Not that it mattered anyway since there were so many wailing corpses throwing themselves at me, I couldn’t have heard her when I couldn’t even hear myself think over all the screaming. I’ve been clean and didn’t want to throw it away over a silly little fear, so it took me a bit longer and well, none of them wanted to talk, you know.”

He gestures with his hand, the blood soaking through the fabric of his coat as it slips down his arm to reveal a flesh wound. As if someone had sunken their nails into his skin and scratched with the intention to carve his flesh out. Blood drips to the floor and there’s a bruising patch of blood on the upper part of his wrist, shaped like teeth. A bite wound.

“Klaus—”

“Truly sorry!” He bursts out, a little manic with a smile that bares his teeth, watching them shrink into themselves. He turns away from the mixed guilty expressions, from Diego who’d gotten to his feet the moment his wound was visible and his blood hit the floor and takes a step back.

He turns to Five with a sneer on his lips. “For being such a useless disappointment, brother dear! Maybe I’ll conjure Daddy for you, so you can have some bonding time over my misgivings, wouldn’t that be nice?” He glances at Luther, who sinks into his seat with wide eyes. “Pretty sure he’d bitch about me taking so long too, coming to think of it, he’d totally be up for that. Might even give a few pointers on how I could have done better with a little special training to get over that silly fear of mine. Because clearly, Casper the friendly little ghost couldn’t be scary and who knows, a little more time at that fucking graveyard and the exposure therapy could have cured me!”

He laughs, high and off-key and runs his shaking hand through his hair. Ben looks a little scared in the corner of his eyes, eyes darting to glare at the rest of his siblings with a fierceness the Horror would never match up to before settling on him with a frown.

Five finches at his words, face pinched and more than a little regretful. “I—”

“No.” Klaus cuts him off, the hiss of a snake giving a warning before striking to poison their victim and Five’s mouth snaps shut and isn’t that a first?

“Save it. I don’t want to hear it and isn’t that funny? Preferring the wailing of their abhorrent screaming over yours? You know what, I think they’ll even make better company than you right now.”

He turns on his heels to leave but in a flash of blue, he nearly runs Five over who places himself in front of him, grasping onto the sleeve of his jacket with a vice grip, eyes wild in a way they hadn’t been since he’s jumped out of his portal in the sky.

Allison’s voice interrupts him before he can say anything and her voice is small and timid in comparison to the confidence she usually has. A shadow of doubt coating her words.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Oh?” Klaus scoffs, raising his eyebrows and lets the smile on his face fall away. “But I absolutely do!”

Five’s grip tightens. “We need to talk this out—”

“Fuck that.” Klaus snaps, towering over Five’s smaller form, tugging at his wrist. “I can’t shut the dead up without the drugs but I refuse to listen to the living when I don’t want to hear it. Get out of my way.”

“No.” There’s no room for arguments in Five’s tone. “I can’t let you leave when—"

“When what?” He must have a death wish for interrupting Five so much without giving a fuck. But anger fueled by hurt gives him a new high he never wanted to experience.

“When you’re not sure I’ll not land myself in the nearest dirty alleyway, so high I don’t remember any of your names? Hate to break it to you but the past few years you’ve been gone I did exactly that and it worked out better than staying here.”

“So…so what? You’ll…you’ll just…just let all…all your work …go to waste?” Diego stutters, hands balled into fists, eyes dark but begging for him to listen. “Over…over an argument?”

“Tempting as it sounds to only hear Ben nagging at me, no. I’m not going out to get high.”

“Then stay here and sort it out with us!” Five tugs at his sleeve, looking the part of a furious thirteen-year-old on the verge of a temper tantrum despite the faint trembling of his hold.

“Instead of taking a fucking stroll through the rain with nobody knowing when you’ll get back in the middle of the night, stay here, let Mom look at that arm and—”

“Did you know that most of the people you have killed follow you around?”

Five stops talking like the words are punched out of his chest. “What?”

“Nice little fan club you’ve got going for you there,” Klaus nods with a chuckle, eyes fixated on the large bodies crowding just shy on the heels of his physical littlest brother.

“Obvious they don’t look as nice as Ben, with the guy in the uniform there and the pencil sticking out of his eye. Another one’s got more bullets in his face than swiss cheese and I’m so glad I don’t have to clean up the blood he’s dripping all over the place.”

_“Klaus…”_ Ben looks sad whatever the fuck for but he doesn’t look like he’s going to reprimand him for speaking his mind, so wherever he’s going with this, he’s in the right and he relishes in it.

“I could walk through as much alleys as I want and wouldn’t see as many ghosts as in this cursed house. Drinking and doing drugs might be nice because Ben would be the only ghost, I’d see but contrary to most of the people still living in this house of horrors, I don’t take fun out of disappointing my brother.”

He hears Luther wince, a sound so pained it almost makes him turn around to see for himself but Ben shakes his head and he tugs at his wrist.

“Stay,” Five persists, voice nowhere near its coldness on giving out orders. His brother’s eyes glance up at him and he takes a step forward towards Klaus, looking like he considers using his body strength to cling to him to make him stay but reconsiders it when Klaus scowls.

“Just…we don’t have to talk now. But…but I’d like it if you’d stay here.”

It’s the biggest compromise from his brother he’s heard, the closest he’s gotten him to admit to being wrong on trying to force an issue he was so sure of. But it’s too late, too raw and Klaus knows he’ll regret it the moment the anger vanishes and leaves him lonely and exhausted.

But it’s high-time someone’ said it.

“So would have I.” A low blow, he knows, Ben doesn’t have to say it out loud for Klaus to get it. Five’s face says it all, the grimace of pain visible for all to see. “Certainly, would have saved me countless attempts of trying to conjure you up to see if you’re dead.”

When he pulls at his wrist this time, Five lets go. Steps aside with more of a stagger than when Klaus had slapped him for his audacity in the office of some glass eye business to get rid of the hurt and betrayal clinging to the sight of him.

“Please.”

Of all the people to use such a word, it’s Luther who says it. The one who hadn’t given in when their sister had screamed her throat raw from inside the prison, he’s forced her into, repeating said word from the bottom of her heart.

“I didn’t take the drugs before taking a walk through the graveyard,” He says to empty air, hearing the wood creak under the steps of his tallest brother walking closer.

“But I swear if you force me to stay here, I will drown the whole fucking bar.”

And unlike with Vanya, Luther seems to hear the sincerity in his voice because he stops moving. He doesn’t stop him when Klaus starts walking to the door.

“Want…want a…a ride?”

Without batting an eye at the offer, he scoffs. “I’ll pass.” He inclines his head towards the table, the folder open with the report he’s written about her appearance, her information, the descriptions of the smallest details he’s seen and heard because Five would appreciate it.

Of course, he’d be wrong about that.

“You have better things to do.”

The door slams shut behind him, loud and final and Klaus doesn’t look back until he can no longer hear the awful wailing of the dead haunting it.

* * *

_“You should take a look at your arm.”_

“What for?” Klaus snorts, sitting up in a tree in a park. The rain is still going strong, but it’s not like he isn’t soaked from head to toe anyway. Nature at least seems to have the benefit of keeping some of the dead away since not many people got murdered under random trees.

A bridge, alleyway or building would be much more crowded.

“Even if the infection makes me kick the bucket, it’s not like I won’t come back.”

Ben makes a wounded noise between a puppy getting kicked in the ribs and a sigh. A fair reaction.

_“Even so, it must hurt.”_

“Ben, Benny, you’re worrying over a little papercut here.” He leans against the wet wood, legs dangling about seven meters up in the air. “That mentally scared me more than it hurt me physically. On second thought, do you think she had rabies? Can ghosts give me rabies?”

He blanches at the thought, looking to Ben who’s sitting next to him, hood up to shield him from the rain going through him. Few perks of being a ghost. Nothing can touch you without outside influence, namely Klaus himself, or hurt you.

_“Why don’t you go back and let Mom check?”_

Klaus’s face sours. “Really? You think that’d work? On me of all people? I’m offended you think I’d be so cheap to fall for such a trick.”

Ben sighs, looking older than he had despite dying so young. _“Worth a shot.”_ and shrugs.

He looks miserable and guilt begins to fester in Klaus’s heart. He knows Ben won’t leave him out here alone, so he doesn’t offer. Still.

“I’ll go back…” He murmurs, half-heartedly. “Just…just not now. As much as I want a drink right now, I don’t think you’d like that. So, I’ll stay here for a bit, to calm down. Clear my head and stuff until I don’t feel like blowing up the moon myself.”

_“Too early.”_ Ben says. _“But I get it.”_

“You always do.” Klaus says fondly, nudging Ben in the side despite his arm going through him. He’ll stay here for a few hours after all the walking he did through town he needs a little rest and as soon as the heat under his bones fizzles out in the rain, he’ll head back to get some Waffles. No big deal.

If push came to shove, he’d ignore his siblings. Just like the ghosts.

It doesn’t matter he’s never done it long successfully but he’s better at it than any of them combined. He’ll deal like he always has.

Ben’s fingers wrap around his wrist to keep him from falling and he doesn’t feel them but the gesture is enough to make his eyes sting.

* * *

_“It’s almost been a week.”_

“Are you a clock now?” Klaus frowns, walking through the early streets when nobody but the ghosts are out. “My personal assistant that needs to check if I miss an appointment? My timetable manager?”

Ben tries to trip him but he’s not corporal, so tough luck. Nothing happens.

_“If I’m anything then it’s your babysitter.”_

“Well,” Klaus sniffs, turning his head away as he crosses the red lights. There’s no car driving around anyway. “You’re not getting paid. Not with that attitude. I thought babysitter need to be nice and shit and all you’re doing Benny-boy is bullying me.”

_“Because you’re being a brat.”_

“Excuse me?”

Ben sighs, long-sufferingly, brows raised. _“You were in the right but you’re also not taking care of yourself. If you want to punish them don’t do it by punishing yourself, that’s just self-harm. Go to a hospital or something.”_

“It’s not like I’ve been sleeping on the streets the past few days!” Klaus gestures back down the streets. “I crashed on the couch of an old acquaintance; you know. Got some food in me and took a shower. The wound’s not infected!”

_“It’s not properly taken care of either!”_

“Bah! That’s old-school.” Klaus dismisses with a wave of his hand. “I got better things to do.”

_“Like what?”_

“How harsh, mein Bruder!” He grabs a fistful of his shirt right above his heart to be dramatic. “And here I was thinking about trying to get a better hang of conjuring the ghosts. Or even better, calling some who don’t answer. That’s not easy and you know it.” 

He waggles a finger at Ben’s face like a Mother scolding their child. Ben looks unimpressed.

“It’s not like we haven’t been apart for more than a week. Be glad I’m not expanding my stay to Sixteen years.”

_“It’s going to scar. Badly.”_

“Whatever,” Klaus rolls his eyes, trying not to look at Ben’s resigned face. “Let’s head down to get some coffee. I’m hungry for something to eat too.”

Ben tactfully doesn’t point out that Klaus doesn’t like coffee, certainly not full black. Because he’s a good brother and understands without having to scream it to the world that he does and lets Klaus stay in denial for a few more hours.

* * *

By the time he dares to approach the house, a week has gone by without much of a fuss. He’s spent most of his days walking through the city, sleeping at the place of a friend from his old days that’s trying to get clean himself and during the night he finds himself outside, he spends his time trying to make Ben physical next to him on the park bench.

_“You could have just walked in through the door like a normal person.”_

“For old times sakes!” Klaus whispers quietly as he climbs through his window. “Also, schäme dich, for implying I’ve ever been normal for one second in my life. I make it a form of art to dress the way I do, so fuck you.”

Ben groans, putting his head in his hands when Klaus lands in his room. He’s sitting on the bed and Klaus walks to his closet to grab a fresh set of clothes.

_“Don’t take three hours in there.”_

He gives him the finger, just because he’s being petty. If it wasn’t for Ben’s overly hard to ignore nagging, he’d still be sitting on that park bench practicing for another two hours.

When he finishes with his shower, dressed in sweatpants and an oversized shirt he’s stolen from Diego, he sneaks down into the kitchen to find his Mom setting up the table. The moment she sees him, her face lights up, coming over to tug him to a chair.

“It’s so good to see you, dear.” She coos, pushing up his sleeve and sighing at the mess of his arm. She pulls back to get the first aid kit out from underneath the sink and gets to clean his arm. “We were worried sick!”

Ben clears his throat, looking smug and Klaus won’t be sharing his patch of waffles.

_“I told you—"_

“—but you’re here now, just in time for breakfast too. So, it’s okay.”

“Sorry for worrying you.” Klaus watches Grace finish wrapping his arm with bandages, closing his eyes when she presses a quick kiss to his forehead.

“It’s all good.” She says. “You’re here now.”

Klaus swallows, mouth oddly dry. “Thanks Mom.”

“Anything for you, dear.” She works on making breakfast and Klaus doesn’t miss she’s already preparing Waffles for him without being prompted to. He sinks into his chair a little at that.

It’s not long before the first person shows up.

“You’re back.” Vanya greets him with a hopeful smile, taking up the chair to his left, eyes roaming over him with an intensity making him shift on his seat. “It’s good to see you.”

“Hey, Van, hope you haven’t missed me too much.”

“Terribly.” She says and the sincerity in her voice makes the guilt hit a bit harder. “But you’re staying, right?”

She’s twelve again. Big eyed and sweet little Vanya when he blinks. The hopeful glint in her eyes as she watches him makes it hard to refuse her.

“How could I possible say no to your puppy eyes?” He squints at her, watching her shoulders relax, a smile flickering across her face. Far too happy and full of relief. He wonders, if perhaps she’s missed him this much during the years and feels shittier for it.

“They’re more lethal than Five and that’s saying something!”

As if summoned by his name, the indirect insult and Vanya’s little giggle, Five appears in a flash in the chair to his right. “What was that?”

Klaus doesn’t scream but he startles, watching Ben jump in his chair. “I’m just telling our sweet little sister she’s coming to up-seat you out of your own business. Better fear for yourself, little man, because she’s got better weapons than you.”

“Oh, stop it.” She pokes him in the cheek and he grins, sharing her smile.

Five scowls when the rest of their siblings walk into the room, Luther halting upon seeing him until Diego shoves him to keep moving with Allison at her heels. They settle into chairs, far too quiet for them as Grace puts down the food and they begin eating.

Not one of them reaches for the Waffles, like it’s an unspoken rule not to touch them.

He ignores them, choosing not to look at the woman leering over his shoulder, brabbling nonsense as the blood from her gunshot wound to the head dribbles onto the table. Pulling his plate closer to shield it from the old blood and brain matter, he shots her an annoyed glance.

No way would she make him lose his appetite. He sees Ben get up to usher her away.

“We got rid of it.” Diego blurts out, quick and blunt and Luther’s fork is bent in half when Klaus takes a glance around the table to see what he’s missed.

He frowns. “Got rid of what? Your quick-tempered attitudes?”

“The mausoleum.” Five says, knuckles white around his cup of coffee.

“You know the ghosts are still there.” Trying to cover up his startled flinch with a humorless smile, he takes a bite of the waffle. “They don’t just leave because you destroyed some old, dirty brick walls.”

Point in case, the woman screeching at Ben, who tries to manhandle her away. Klaus shifts away from her, closer to Vanya. He doesn’t ask how they know about the mausoleum because part of him doesn’t want to know how long they knew.

“Should I move away?” Five asks, eyeing him with the same gaze he uses on his victims he tries to interrogate into telling him their dirty little secrets. The concern shining through is touching though.

“If you want to flash to the other side of the world, then sure. If not, it makes no difference if you’re upstairs or sitting right next to me.”

Five makes a noise in his throat, between a hiss and a curse before he turns to peer over his cup of coffee towards the other side of the wall. “Fuck off.”

Klaus chokes on a laugh because the woman doesn’t look as offended as she should with Five glaring at her. Ben mirrors his laugh and because of that, he makes him visible, earning five startled intakes of breath.

“Not you.” Five says as Ben snorts. “Really?”

“What are you holding Ben?” Diego asks with a frown, a bit weirded out at the choke-hold Ben has on empty air.

“A ghost.”

“No shit,” Klaus grins, plopping his chin on the palm of his hand, elbow up on the table. “Look at you being my personal bodyguard now!” He gestures with his fork.

“Great,” Ben deadpans, glaring at the ghost woman. “What an upgrade from being your personal babysitter. I’m honored.”

“Careful now,” He chews through his piece of waffle. “Ghost lady over there just might spit in your face.”

“Stop looking at her, dumbass.” Ben grouses, turning his glare to Klaus. “You’ll ruin your appetite.”

“That bad, huh?” Diego asks lightly but his grip around the kitchen knife tightens.

“Depends,” Klaus snarks, turning to glance at his plate of half-finished waffles. “Do you like blood instead of syrup on your waffles? Or brain matter for sprinkles?”

Allison and Vanya put their forks down.

“Sorry.” He hadn’t mean to make them lose their appetite or to make the food come back up from the pale looks on their faces.

“It’s fine.” Vanya hurries, turning her body, so she’s taken up most of his line of sight when he glances to his left. The smile on her face is strained but real. “My appetite on mornings is never big anyway.”

“Yeah, and I spent like half the time skipping breakfast because I needed to keep my figure, you know? Movie stars need to look perfect and all that jazz.” Allison winks.

“You obviously nailed that, Sis.”

She preens under his praise.

“I’m sorry.” Luther’s voice cuts through the comfortable atmosphere, shattering it like a sledge hammer to a window. “I hadn’t realized…no, it’s…I’m sorry. For…for everything.” His eyes stray from Klaus to Vanya and he looks downright haunted by his guilt. Pun intended.

“You shouldn’t have gone to that graveyard.” Five doesn’t look up from staring into his cup of half-finished coffee. “Even if the information was useful for me. For what it’s worth, I’m proud. Thank you but don’t do it again without supervision.”

His foot knocks gently against Klaus’s under the table, knees touching and the joke about Five’s feet not reaching the ground doesn’t make it past the lump in his throat.

“What am I?” Ben mutters, swatting at the air. “Thin air?”

“You’re my moral support ghost, Benny!” Klaus flutters his eyelashes at his brother who make a face, lips quirking up at the corners. “My very own Casper! My Ghost charming. You know, like the therapy dogs some people got? That’s you—”

“I get it.” Ben cuts him off with a fond eye roll. “Idiot.”

“I’m happy you came back.” Vanya nudges him in the side, pushing her plate of scrambled eggs aside. “It’s far too boring here without you.”

“She left you a plate of waffles every morning.” Allison agrees with a nod of her head, inclining her head towards Vanya, whose cheeks flush a charming pink.

“Now, that’s just too cute not to comment on!” Klaus reaches out to tussle her hair, pinching one of her cheeks. She looks embarrassed but leans into his touch with a longing that makes his chest hurt. “Thank you, favorite sister of mine!”

“Hey,” Allison mumbles, lacking any bite to her word. She looks a little teary-eyed at them.

“Don’t fret. I’ll stay here for you. It got boring trying to summon spirits in the dead of the night anyway.”

Ben slaps a hand to his forehead at the pun and Vanya snorts when he pulls his hand back to finish his waffles.

A frown appears on her face. “You must have been cold.”

“As cold as a corpse!”

“Cut it out already.” Ben grumbles, crossing his arms and leaning against the back of Klaus’s chair. “Your stupid jokes are missing their mark by miles today.”

“That’s just because you’ve heard them all before.”

He gets a swat to the back of his head for talking back but takes it all in good humor. Vanya’s face loses some of her concern but they know if they continue to push, they won’t get anything useful out of him today. Or ever.

“Poor Ben.” Diego says and leaves it at that.

If Allison takes the time to drag him off to her room for another session of painting nails with Vanya and takes twice as long to paint them on with a shaking hand, he doesn’t mention it. Neither does Five, who’s taken a corner of the room to read his book in peace, glancing towards them like he’s not sure they’ll disappear if he doesn’t check on them every second. Diego is polishing his knives at her desk, commenting on the color she chooses and earning himself a pillow to the face. Luther brings them a plate of cookies Grace made for them, shuffling into the room like an oversized puppy.

The next morning Klaus wakes up to Ben’s amused smile, telling him Luther has tucked them all into extra blankets when they fell asleep in Allison’s room.

_“Holy shit, are you actually crying, man?”_

Klaus tells Ben to shut the fuck up and turns over to hug Vanya closer to him. It’s rare he gets any cuddle time with any of his siblings and she’s small and warm, a teddy bear. The lest meanest of the bunch too. The only other thing that would get him up and moving would be another apocalypse.

So, Ben can keep laughing at him all he wants. Klaus won’t let himself be goaded out of his personal safe little heaven.

_“Calling me a softie but being far too nice yourself. Hypocritical little shit.”_

And yeah, Ben’s kind of right, it still hurts and giving in so quick after letting them stew for a week isn’t much of a punishment but they make him hurt less when they’re being nice. It’s a process he’s learnt, to get better and leaving them hanging would be really shitty of him too.

For now, he’s content to bask in a warmth that chases away the frigid coldness of the ghosts in his skin. He’s sure if he pulls the guilt card, he’ll even get mean little Five to jump into the cuddle pile even if he has to convince Ben to shove him in.

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing for this fandom! So, any feedback in the comments is appreciated! I hope the characterizations aren't off. But if they are, just tell me what I need to improve on.
> 
> God, I love this show and I literally found it like yesterday. You can bet I'll write about about my favorites, Klaus, Five and Ben!


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